


it ain't hard to define

by ArrowsandGuns (orphan_account)



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men: Apocalypse
Genre: Gen, slight blood, slight gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-14 04:43:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7154039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/ArrowsandGuns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter loves music and can identify beats and songs, literally, faster than anyone else. Just when he thinks he's getting into a good rhythm at Xavier's Institute, he meets a mutant named Sabretooth and nothing is the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it ain't hard to define

Two things end up saving his life: dumb luck and abject stupidity.

The first one isn't much a stretch. It just comes with the territory; that is to say mutation, a fancy school run by a bald telepath, and having a dad with a reputation in scores of countries that starts with "terrorist" and ends in "dead or alive". It's not all bad, that much Peter knows. He's got a lifetime of twinkies and a sketched up cast and the adoration of millions. Okay, maybe just a couple dozen kids, but what's the difference? At the end of the day, both feed your ego just fine.

And bring snacks.

But that's the rule for like, watching them train outside the Danger Room. It was his idea, and Scott was quick to agree, much to Jean's dismay (that's how he knows it's a bad idea indeed). The kids don't mind, really. Mystique doesn't care for the missing chips but then, she didn't write her name on them so there! ("Peter, she doesn't need to write her name on her favorite snack for people to respect those boundaries." "She totally does." "How about I borrow some of those twinkies, then?" "Uh, yeah, let's not take her chips anymore.") 

The kids are the best part of the gig, Peter thinks. He's out of his mom's basement and he's doing more for the world and with his power, but he gets to be around kids all the time. And if his life being half-spent raising his little sister meant anything, he loves kids. The Professor might explain it as a subconscious desire to make up for missing a father figure but, like, his dad's not missing.

He's on the TV. Rather, he was. After the Apocalypse mess, the showings of their heroics dropped off after a week. Unfortunately, that's how long it took to rebuild the school (lots of furniture and underground-secret-y stuff) so they never got to throw an official party.

Thus, the watching of X-Men training began.

Sometimes it was early in the morning, but often it was after lunch and before dinner. Usually the real-deal Danger Room training went on in the morning, especially when they were half-awake. Mystique said that made it more realistic. Peter said it was bullshit, but, y'know, Mystique just turned into him and played the world's most annoying game of Stop Copying Me.

Jubilee was the biggest regular to their training. She was the closest to the group, and Kurt had even asked if she could make the team. The Professor had hung onto some reserves about training them as X-Men in the first place, so he immediately rejected the idea of adding more. He didn't want to glorify the work to the other students, either, because he was stern on his whole 'students not soldiers' philosophy that Mystique ever-so-sarcastically echoed. Peter supposed it was for the best. He'd probably spend a lot of time watching her fireworks instead of confusing the Sentinels with Kurt.

But that wasn't the kind of stupidity that saved his life.

It was a free day at the school for the students, but a busy one for the X-Men. They had three Danger Room sessions and, no, they didn't technically have to hold their own training session, but yes, they would have gotten their ass kicked if they hadn't talked strategy. Now, strategy was supposed to be something Scott had the last word on. In practice, he basically ran everything by Jean. 

(Storm eventually got in on that daily conversation. She knew how to plan, especially on the spot, because she had to organize various distractions to successfully pick pockets. She didn't have "honorable" strategies like Scott tried; her's involved a lot of attention-drawing, cheap tricks, and independent actions but collective teamwork. Her plans worked in the Danger Room when Scott's plan hit a bump in the road, but it often led to one of them getting captured or "neutralized" (which meant they had to play dead and weren't allowed to help further). In the big, dangerous scenarios, Storm was undoubtedly the best, but it always had a casualty if it wasn't the original plan they went with.)

After the morning session, the group emptied the table of every breakfast item the other students didn't finish. They didn't say much as they tried to make up for all the calories they burned while kicking ass. Eventually, Jubilee entered the room and popped her gum as she counted every plate that lacked even crumbs.

"Hard day, huh?" She pulled out her pack of gum and gestured with it as an offer.

Scott accepted a piece without hesitation. "It's only gonna get harder," he sighed.

Jean passed the pack around, abstaining. "She's already told us the scenario for the second session. We should get ready for it now."

Peter took two pieces and laughed, "We just finished getting beat up, y'know."

"We need to be ready," Jean countered.

"I could use a nap."

"It's not even ten o'clock," Storm mused as she looked at the clock.

Kurt piped up, "I wouldn't mind some rest, either." He cradled his left hand for a few moments as emphasis. He'd landed poorly after teleporting rapidly to slow his descent.

Jean closed her eyes and discovered that she had to put up a fight to open them again. "One hour," she conceded. "Then we meet outside and practice for our up-coming scenario."

"It's just Capture the Flag," Scott mumbled as he rose from the table to go to his room.

Kurt looked at Storm and they shared a confused look. Jubilee's jaw threatened to drop as she grabbed them both by the shoulder and walked them out. "Okay, so Capture the Flag is a game that's very similar to..." she started explaining.

Peter and Jean looked at each other for a slow, tired moment before following suit.

"See you at twelve," he promised before speeding away.

"I said one hour, Peter!" 

**Author's Note:**

> Posting only because I'm hours away from the draft being deleted. Should I bother continuing?


End file.
